Bathurst Observatory Research Facility
Bathurst NSW Australia
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Bathurst Observatory Research Facility is an observatory site primarily for education, research and study, though we do offer general public viewing nights.
Open Nights Star Tours Available Now (conditions and limits apply)
Bookings will be essential for all tours.
(All tours subject to weather)
NEWS: Tours begin at the new site
Tours are underway at the new site. The site is not complete yet, however, are able to offer tours to help complete other facilities.
Tours will be generally be available any clear Friday and Saturday nights, however, we can also offer some tours, mid week for groups of 5 or more. Check to see if I am available.
Any clear Friday and Saturday Nights!!!
Note, Bathurst Observatory has moved and under construction!!!!
The new site, opened during 2020 and offers better sky, better viewing opportunities and a more unique experience.
No tours in the week of Full Moon.
Please note that the main telescope is pretty big and requires use of a small stepladder for viewing. Please advise if you would have difficulties with steps and we can set up a different telescope.
* There may be some mid week research nights where tours are not available.
Reduced Tours Prices for groups
Costs :
As the site is not yet complete with all facilities, we are asking for donation towards completion (an amount you think is fair for the tour and my time).
(Note: we have NO credit card facilities)
Tour bookings and Enquiries, phone (0427292214 Please leave a message as we screen out spam calls), or email us. (Email is by far the best way to get us, if you don’t get a reply it means you have us blocked!!! Please change your settings!).
Why “Open Nights”?
We used to do tours in the observatory dome. However, we found that the dome itself blocked out most of the night sky! Our visitors wanted to view through a telescope but be able to see and hear about the wonders of the night sky at the same time. We particularly had many visitors from urban areas wanting to see a nice dark country sky full of stars. The solution, set up the public telescope as nature wanted us to, on cleared ground next to the observatory, under the wonder of the Southern stars.
Our tours are conducted with the only guide with over fifteen years educational astronomy experience and with Bachelor of Education Honours Degree! Our guide is also an internationally recognised expert in the field of meteorites.
Tours require bookings and are weather dependent. (We can’t see stars through clouds!) Tour duration is about 1 hour, depending on time of year.
We cater for all school astronomy and space excursions, as well as general public telescope tours of the night sky. Primarily we offer our open night tours to inspire everyone to look to the night sky.
The Milky Way stretches overhead in this view taken at the Bathurst Observatory Research Facility.
The Bathurst Observatory Research Facility (Research and Meteorite Related Enquires and Public Viewing Nights)
The Bathurst Observatory Research Facility, located on the current site on Limekilns Road north east of Bathurst. At the research site, we study, comets, asteroids, variable stars, meteors and meteorites. For research related enquires please email us.
We also welcome any enquires or questions you may have on Astronomy, Space or meteorite related matters.
Our FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/BathurstObservatory/ is regularly updated, so have a look for the latest news and images from the observatory.
Other Tours
Solar Telescope Tours (Viewing the Sun)
On occasions, we are able to offer daytime telescope views of the sun. We have a special telescope that allows you to SAFELY view the sun. At present the availability of these tours will depend on three factors.
- that I’m available on the day.
- it is not cloudy.
- that the sun has some active features.
The third point is important, as sometimes the sun can be quiet and not as interesting to see.
These tours will be about 15 minutes in duration and by gold coin donation. Bookings for a solar tour would be essential.
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"Watch THIS Space"
Here is the first of the promised monthly updates of what is happening in the night sky that you can head out and enjoy and share with others. The first object of interest “might” turn out to be one certainly not to miss.
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is currently too close to the sun to see, however, at the end of September it may become quite a spectacular object, low in the eastern sky near dawn. The comet may be as bright as magnitude 0.5 (as bright as most brighter stars) displaying a nice long tail as well.
Notice though I say “may” as comets are not entirely predictable. A lot depends on if the comet survives its approach to the sun and on something called forward scatter (the size of the dust particles that make up the tail that can make the comet much brighter). As such, the comet may be brighter or much fainter than predicted. The best times to look for it will be from around 4:15AM until twilight for a week low in the east from the 26th September and each morning following for about the first week of October. It will then be too low to see until after 18th October, when it becomes nicely placed and hopefully still bright in the evening western sky.
I have attached two finder maps. One for the 28th September at 4:30AM looking east. The other is western sky at 8:30pm about the 19th of October. Remember the comet does NOT blaze or streak across the sky!!!!! It will slowly change its position relative to background stars each night.
Keep an eye out too now for Venus, low in the western sky after sunset and then turn around and look east to see Saturn rising in the eastern sky as the night continues. If you have a telescope, try turning it towards these planets. ... See MoreSee Less
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Thank you. I’ve photographed both planets. Through my telescope.Very exciting
Excellent! Thanks for the detailed info.
Jenny Walsh it is spectacular
Kim Pattison
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Watch this “space”. I am going to introduce a new monthly feature this Wednesday. People have requested more info about what is happening in the sky they can see. So I’m will post some info about what to look at, when and how! ... See MoreSee Less
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Would love to come
F
Sandra
Nebula M16, also known as the Eagle Nebula.
It has been a frustrating few weeks tours wise with the weather. None more so than last night when it was perfectly clear.... Until right at the time we started the tour and over came a wall of cloud, totally obscuring the sky. I felt very sorry for those who had travelled all this way, only for the weather to ruin the night. To top it off, once everyone had looked around the museum and departed, I closed up the observatory, only to have the dome issue preventing closing occur again. That means next weekend I'll have to do some more permanent repairs. ... See MoreSee Less
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I do like the Prawn Nebula. One of those objects that kind of look like its common name. I imaged this a couple of weeks ago on a clear night (they have been a bit rare lately!) September tours will be posted end of next week! ... See MoreSee Less
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The colours are amazing.
Joe Tf sky prawn!
So what are the August tour dates?
I am selecting mainly Saturday's due to a few other things on.
3rd of August (note rain is already in the forecast for this one)
Saturday the 10th
Saturday the 24th
All tours would be 7:30pm, booking via message or email.
PS I am planning that the intro Zoom course might be on the full Moon weekend when I don't normally have tours anyway. Details a week out from that one. ... See MoreSee Less
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Galaxy NGC 5128, imaged on my last clear night almost a month ago! Unprecedented cloudy weather saw all school holiday tours cancelled. I am so sorry about that to all those who booked or on a waiting list for a vacancy. It certainly has been a tough time to be an astronomer.
Tours for August (hopefully better weather) will be posted shortly, as well as a date for the introduction to astrophotography course Zoom details. ... See MoreSee Less
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As I mentioned on my radio show, I am considering offering the introduction to astro imaging course initially online via Zoom starting in August. Not sure the costs, but still might be pay whatever you think is fair. Thoughts? ... See MoreSee Less
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Please let us know I am in Tassie and would be interested
I’m in Orange and interested
I'd be interested too..
Well it has been a shocking week of weather (no tours due to cloud!). A few weeks ago, I did had a clear night and was able to capture an image of galaxy M83. Love the spiral structure of this galaxy.
Fingers crossed for clear weather soon! ... See MoreSee Less
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🤞🏽tomorrow nights tours will go ahead ☺️
😶🌫️😶🌫️😶🌫️😶🌫️😶🌫️😶🌫️🙄
I had a LOT of telescope issues on the evening of the 27th June, trying to image comets Pons Brooks (left) and Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) (right). Note the very distant galaxies around comet Tsuchinshan!. It seems windows yet again reassigned my com ports and the telescope is very com port specific. A driver issue also affected the autoguider. So in the end, I rushed these images when things tried to talk to each other. Not the best, sorry!
I am also finalising the astrophotography classes. July might be a bit soon, but August is looking very good to start them off! ... See MoreSee Less
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Nice photos, I have a question, the angle of the comet to us here on earth, does it make the comet look to be moving faster to the background stars ? I took 32 photos over 8 minutes of the comet on the 25th and when I checked them on the computer, I could see the comet moving closer to a background star. The last time I photographed the comet was about a month ago and I didn't notice any movement. I know it is moving and on it's way out of the inner solar system.
Tee Pee